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The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

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A Matter of Life or Death Somewhere in the United Sates, a person’s life is being called into question. He might face either life imprisonment or death as a judgement for his crimes. Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is execution of a convicted criminal. However, the practice is very controversial in the United States. Many believe that the death sentence should be stopped while others support it as a means of protection for innocent people. The question is, which side is right? Because capital punishment is a decision that severely impacts a person’s life, it should be carefully examined to reach a conclusion on its validity and effectiveness. One of the first issues called into question is the risk of terminating innocent …show more content…

The parts of the constitution often quoted are the fifth and eighth amendments. First, in the Bill of Rights, it clearly states that “no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime…nor be deprived of life, liberty or property” (U.S. Const. amend. V). The death penalty obviously places the life of the accused in jeopardy, which is unconstitutional according to this clause. Secondly, the eighth amendment is referred to because many see the death penalty as a “cruel and unusual punishment,” which the amendment clearly declares is not to be inflicted (Amend. VIII). On the other hand, people who are pro-death penalty insist that capital punishment is not unconstitutional. There is a clause in the fifth amendment that explains that a man’s life will not be put in jeopardy “without due process of law” (Amend. V). The fourteenth amendment also says, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” (Amend. XIV). As no man may be punished by the government without a fair trial (Amend. VI), through the process of court examination a man can be found guilty and therefore receive capital punishment for his

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Do you think that the eighth amendment supports the death penalty? According to http://th8thamendment.weebly.com/current-controversies.html “punishment given to criminals is supposed to give some sort of rehabilitation. If the convict is killed, then there is no point to the penalty.” This makes sense because if you get 30 years in prison or a fine, once it is over you get the chance to learn from it and to never make the same mistake again. Also according to http://th8thamendment.weebly.com/current-controversies.html Sister Camille D’Arienz, a catholic nun who started the Declaration of Life movement said “Capital punishment is the only time we punish the person in kind for a crime.”

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The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the United is one of the shortest amendments, but its understanding has caused many debates. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted (). The 1960s brought challenges to the fundamental legality of the death penalty. Before then, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments were interpreted as permitting the death penalty (Death Penalty Information Center, 2015). The eighth Amendment was born from the 1689 English Bill of Rights.

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The reason people wanted the death penalty to be deemed unconstitutional was because the way it was being carried out. Under the eighth amendment, it forbids cruel and unusual punishment. The way the death penalty was acting against the eighth amendment was that the death penalty at the time did not have the guidelines that the death penalty has today. The death penalty was being used in an excessive manner. In the Furman v. Georgia case of 1972, Justices were not happy with the death penalty and wanted it abolished in the United States of America.

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Does the death penalty violate the 8th Amendment? According to the National Constitution Center, the 8th Amendment states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (“Amendment VIII”). There is no objective answer to this, because the courts never clearly stated that the death penalty is cruel and unusual. I do not agree with any part of the death penalty simply because I believe it is cruel in the sense that it strips man of his “right to life” as declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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Capital punishment commonly referred to as the death sentence or penalty is a topic of widespread controversy. The question of whether capital punishment is “cruel and unusual” provokes questions about societal values and the philosophy behind punishments. As decreed in the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution it declares the use of “cruel and unusual” punishments is to be prohibited. With many execution methods such as lethal injection, electrocution, beheading, hanging, firing squads, and stoning, it sparks the question. Do these fall under the Eighth amendment?

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In the United States death penalty is the execution of either a male or female offender, as said offender has received a sentenced of death for a criminal offense, after they have been convicted by a court of law. The term death penalty is sometimes used interchangeably with capital punishment, because there is a possibility of their sentence being commutated to life imprisonment if another court over turns the original ruling. The metaphysical and ethical basis for the death penalty for some is fundamentally wrong and against moral possibility. Those also point out that the complicated legal process and the extremely high costs involved in the pre-trial and trial phases for all death penalty cases, there for able makes it an

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Does the death penalty violate the Eighth Amendment? The U. S. Supreme Court found to uphold the last penalty in Gregg v. Georgia (1976) as an acceptable sentence, when an offender has committed murder and ruled that the judgment did not offend the Eighth Amendment. Yet Americans have a fear of putting an innocent person to death. However, offenders are given the opportunity to have the death sentenced overturned. In fact, a direct appeal begins immediately in some of the sentencing state's highest courts when an offender is sentenced to the death penalty.

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“The Court has consistently ruled that capital punishment itself is not a violation of the Eighth Amendment, but that some applications of the death penalty are "cruel and unusual." (Cruel & Unusual Punishment) The execution of the death sentence is subject to mistakes and flaws that may lead to the punishment being applied unfairly and in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The death penalty is an extreme and irreversible punishment placed on criminals in the United States legal system. The error and bias found within sentencing capital punishment cause it to be an unjustifiable and unethical practice that should be abolished and replaced with more life sentences without the possibility of

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The Rules of rights from the 8th Amendment ‘’Unless this right to bail before trial is preserved the presumption of innocence secured only after centuries of struggle, would lose its meaning. The U.S supreme court has ruled that this is a Amendment cruel and unusual punishment cause also applies to the states. The court concluded that the death penalty as a punishment for murder does not itself

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The 8th Amendment of the Constitution states that no one should receive any "cruel and unusual punishments" for the crimes they have commited. The death penalty is a violation of the 8th amendment, and should be banished from the USA as it is an unreasonable and extreme punishment that is unnecessary and avoidable. The death penalty is inhumane, irreversible, and much more expensive compared to a non-death penalty case. Currently, 27 states are still using the death penalty and many of these states are either Midwest or South. Methods such as lethal injection, electric chair, hanging, gas chambers, and firing squad are used to execute these inmates.

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Capital punishment has always been a controversial topic on human rights. It is when convicted criminals are put to death with the approval of the government, which is also known as the death penalty. Capital punishment is only allowed after a proper trail for a specific type of crime including crimes such as murder, second degree murder, mass killing, terrorism, and treason. The death penalty happens in the death row, which is where the criminals wait to be executed. It has been banned in many countries, but the United States still allow capital punishment to occur.

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(“Death Penalty”) “These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual”(Rakoff). The Legal Information Institution states that capital punishment, another term for the death penalty, is not in violation of the eighth amendment. The

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873 Words | 4 Pages

Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a legal process in which a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime by the government of a nation. The United States is in the minority group of nations that uses the death penalty. There are thirty-three states that allow capital punishment and seventeen states that abolished it (Death Penalty Information Center). The morality of the death penalty has been debated for many years. Some people want capital punishment to be abolished due to how it can cost a lot more than life imprisonment without parole, how they think it is immoral to kill, and how innocent people can be put to death.

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This is because the death penalty is an explicit violation of the 8th amendment in the United States Bill of Rights. The 8th amendment has three clauses: excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment. Capital punishment clearly crosses the line of the last part in the amendment that states “nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” This section does not allow the government to harm any citizen of the United States in such a way, which, as the Supreme Court ruled in 1972, includes the death penalty. In 1972, the Supreme Court was faced with the landmark case Furman v. Georgia.

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People started the Capital Punishment debate in the early 1950s, and it perseveres as a very controversial topic (History of Death Penalty). Capital Punishment is a very permanent solution to problems, and it has several drawbacks- like its improper methods of execution; it is also unethical, immoral, and often discriminatory. According to the 8th amendment, the government can neither impose excessive taxes or fines on citizens nor can it sentence cruel or unusual punishments. This amendment was based on the English Bill of Rights, and it was originally created to prevent unusual punishments like branding or strangling.

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